Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AchRs) are proteins that control skeletal muscle contraction, sympathetic and parasympathetic ganglia function (which is related to the control of the cardiovascular and visceral functions) and important communication pathways in the brain. These receptors are disturbed in the Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, schizophrenia and other disorders involving memory loss, cognitive problems and/or dementia (2,14,15). Neuronal AchRs are the biological substrate for nicotine addiction (3-6, 17). Blockade of these receptors could contribute to the anti-addictive properties of certain alkaloids (1).
Inhibitors of AchRs affect all these processes and many are used for therapeutic purposes. These inhibitors form a large, chemically-heterogenous group of compounds, which block the receptor by a variety of mechanisms (15).
We discovered a new family of AchR inhibitors, the cembranoids isolated from gorgonian corals (see the `Detailed Description of the Invention`). Some aspects of this discovery were reported in the literature (7-13, 16, 18, 19).
To our knowledge, there are no other patents related to the use of cembranoids as inhibitors of AChRs.